You Make Me Want to Stay
by l.h. Zein
Summary: His first memory is of the sky, the cool harsh glint of the stars before the sun flooded the heaven and warmed the earth beneath his feet. Something in him tugged toward the sky. Though, in retrospect, how could it not. His mother was a constellation, and his father made the heavens his kingdom.


His first memory is of the sky, the cool harsh glint of the stars before the sun flooded the heaven and warmed the earth beneath his feet. Something in him tugged toward the sky. Though, in retrospect, how could it not. His mother was a constellation, and his father made the heavens his kingdom. When he thinks back to those first few days, a peace washes over him. A peace he hasn't really known since.

He's been nothing but mischief since then, stealing cows, setting traps, and traveling. He lays lazily down next to Apollo, who'd forgiven him for the cow incident (with the help of a bribe). 'You should see the places I've seen.' He murmured stealing a glance to Apollo's bright eyes. 'I do, all the time, just from a million miles in the sky.' he replies. Hermes shook his head, his dark curls spilling over his eyes. 'It's not the same as being lost within them. The humans.' he sighs, 'They have this way of making things beautiful in their simplicity.' He leans his head back as Apollo runs his long fingers through his hair. 'It's like they call to me.' Apollo nods.

'I think that's the only reason father made you messenger. He figured if you were intent on galavanting across the globe, you may as well be doing something useful.' Hermes grins, a hint of wickedness in his lips, before he presses his mouth on top of his. When they pull away, something flashes across Apollo's face. 'One day brother, someone is going to make you quiet. Someone is going to make you stay.' Hermes frowns as Apollo pulls away and reaches for his clothes. He's left all day wondering what exactly he'd seen.

It's hard to find someone who shares his enthusiasm, his want for more. It's primal, this need to have everything; the need to simply swallow the globe whole. He's surprised when his companion ends up being sunshine and daisy crowns Persephone. He thinks Demeter doesn't know her daughter at all after watching her match him pint for pint until her lips and the corners of her mouth are stained crimson from the wine. 'You're just like me.' She whispers to him in the night as he's searching in the heavens for his mother's stars. 'How's that?' he whispers back. She props her elbow up and leans her head into her hand. 'We both want. We want so much it hurts.' She turns back to the sky, ignoring his intense stare. 'We cry for places we've never seen and people we've never met.' He turns away quickly, his gut tightening. He doesn't know how anyone underestimates Persephone. She might be the only one of them that's still got her head on right.

They continue, street to street, soaking up the humans and their cities, letting the years pass in blinks of the eye. Though, they both seem to realize that it has to end. This dalliance of theirs isn't leading to where their heart's should want them to go. 'Just once.' She traces his jawline, 'Just once I want to feel it.' She says before capturing her lips with his. 'Just once I want to feel what it's like to be everything to you.' He sighs. 'You've held my heart.' She smiles sadly, because it's not the answer she wants. They both know that. She leaves him the next day. A cold bed. A cold room. A coldness in his chest. It's eons later before she walks willingly into Hades's open arms. Though to him, it feels like seconds since she left him alone in that room, and his face stings from the slap that the Fates had dealt him.

He loses himself with Dionysus, drinking and laminating all the while. 'When will it ever just be simple?' He asks between hiccups. The pity is obvious in his brother's eyes. 'One day it will be.'

He runs through lovers like clothes after that. It almost hurts him how quickly he moves on from them. They litter his memories, but in the end the pull from the outside is greater than whatever one lies between the sheets.

He takes to thieving again, something to make him feel. He stops by a village, eyeing the lonely horse, whose rider is busy making note of his supplies. Easy. In fact, this one he'll do without an ounce of divinity at his fingertips. He's quick to get over, but someone's already beat him to his mark. Her hair is in cascades down her back, with eyes a shade of green that border on blue. There's something else, some sort of cosmic power that radiates off her. He can feel it 100 feet away. Silently, he watches as she charms the poor fool with a few pointed words, all the while untying the horse's reins from the post. She bends down low enough to distract the man, and before he knows it she's swung one leg over the horse. They're both gone in seconds. He leans his head back and laughs for minutes, leaving his mouth hurting from the strain. He hasn't had this much fun since he accidentally crashed one of Aphrodite and Ares's 'secret' special moments.

'I want to track her down.' he tells Apollo. His brother knots and arrow and pulls back aiming for his target. 'I can't believe you've gotten this worked up over a girl.' Apollo says letting the air fly from the bow. He rolls his eyes, catching sight of Aphrodite as she walks. She has her normal band of companions that his gaze easily slides past, though the smirk on Aphrodite's face gives him pause. Surely, she doesn't think that they'd have another go after the last time they both fell in together in a drunken stupor. Her eyes flit from his to one of her companions, and it's like he's swallowed a pit of fire, because there she is. Aphrodite laughs, held tilted back before she leads them all away. Hermes turns dumbly to Apollo. 'I found her.'

He watches them for a good week before he works up the nerve to approach them. She's sitting to the side musing over the trees in the garden before he comes up behind her. 'I don't think we've been properly introduced.' He extends his hand. 'Hermes' There's a smile in her eyes before she lends him her own hand. 'I know who you are Lord Hermes.' It falls out like a jab from her mouth. A title that should command respect has come out like a joke. Oddly, he doesn't mind the slight. If anything, it is endearing. 'Peitho.' she says before pulling her hand from his. 'Pleitho.' Her name rolls over his tongue like silk. 'I..' He's given no time to finish his speech before she interrupts. 'Forgive me Lord Hermes, but I'm well aware of you and your excursions all across this humble earth.' The amusement shines in her eyes. He smiles slightly. 'Yes well it seems there's a greater pull on me from the outside than whatever is here.' 'Well it's you're own fault if you don't see what's in front of you.' she says sweetly. His eyes trail her as she walks to rejoin Aphrodite's retinue. It's in that moment that he knows. This one is dangerous, and he's always enjoyed playing with knives.

So they meet, sometimes in the garden, but after a while they start going on little trips. Thieving and traveling. He watches her in awe as she manages to charm a man right out of his fortune, before handing it back to him. 'That's amazing.' he tells her later, when they've left the town and settled by the river. She smiles, dipping her hand into the water. 'Well, seduction isn't just flesh. It's words and silence, sometimes just a language with your eyes.' He follows her movements as she dips her feet into the water. He finds himself nodding. It's not just her eyes, it's every muscle in her entire body that speaks.

It aches in his ichor filled bones how much he wants her. All that really remains is a blessing, so he goes to his father and makes a show of kneeling before him. Yet the answer is still cold and echoing in his ears hours after he'd left. _No. No. She is unsuitable._ He's disliked his father, disagreed with a number of things he'd done, but he'd never hated him as he does in this moment. His oppressive nature has finally become too much, so he does what he knows. He runs.

He runs and runs until the earth feels too small. He collapses on the edges of the heavens, not from exhaustion of his bones but rather the exhaustion in his soul. He doesn't know how long he lays there before he senses another join him. He peeks from beneath his long lashes. Persephone offers him a smile before settling down beside him.

Words tumblr easily from his lips, and Persephone listens without interruption. He's missed her, in his own way. Her visits topside have become shorter, and it's plain to see why. It's more than an infatuation between her and her husband. It's real, powerful, and all consuming. She puts her hand atop his when words have finally abandoned him. 'You've never been one to listen to rules.'

In the end it's all very quiet, with Hera blessing the marriage as an act of defiance against Zeus. She was torn about the decision, and they'd argued for days. Their defiance would have consequence. They sit in their room arms around one another, their thoughts resounding in the silence. It's a waiting game now. The first move has been made.

It seems he's not the only one who is tired. Athena sends him a message, barely a murmur in the wind, but the meaning is clear. She is planning a rebellion. Their family splits, some remaining with their Father and others all too eager to join in. In the end it's all very anti-climatic. Perhaps Zeus had consulted his Fate's and found the endings unpleasant on either end. He always did know which battles were worth fighting. Maybe this isn't how they're supposed to be remembered; a whisper on the street, a rumor, a dream… a nightmare. One way or another they disband and fall out from each other. 'I suppose this is your dream.' Apollo says before they part ways. His hand weighs down heavily on his shoulder. 'We're finally going to see what you've seen.'

Peitho stands before him. 'Are you happy now?' She asks. 'It would have happened regardless of me or you. The world is changing whether we want it to or not.' She steps closer and they lean their foreheads against one another. 'I suppose it is.' She says. When he opens his eyes, she's gone. It's truly comical in the end how they all lose.

She drifts, running on the ground and in the heavens, always hungry. Always empty. She takes a less elaborate role than the others. Aphrodite does it all. Heiress. Actress. All of it, before she settles on discretion. Something dark washes over them, the corruption in the mortals becomes nearly too much. She takes a job as an advice columnist. With her popularity now, she may as well write a book and reap the exposure. Though it seems now not even Aphrodite wishes for attention.

She tries to listen for any trace of him, but in the end it's really only the actions and the changes that give her a clue. The internet. The rise of social media. All of it reeks of him. Even now, he still give gifts.

She thrives in her own world, night to night, sheet to sheet. She wants to lose. She wants to forget.

One day she meets Aphrodite for coffee not far from the architecture business that Hephaestus had started. It shocks her to no end that they'd found their way back to one another. Aphrodite shrugs, curls falling from her shoulders to her back. 'No matter what happened, we always seemed to fall back into each other.' She pauses, 'He gives me peace.' She looks away quickly, ignoring the fire that edges in her throat. She knows.

Enough is enough. It's not paradise when they're together, but it's like death when they're apart. She tracks him down in a surprisingly quiet corner in a city that's never slept. The door opens easily enough, simple furnishing. Nothing really shows that he's left roots. Nothing suggests that the place is his except the power that radiates off him that even now still lingers in his absence.

He's silent when he enters. Only his eyes show that they recognize her. 'Are you here to taunt me?' he finally says, 'to see how far Lord Hermes has fallen?' She shakes her head. 'We've all fallen.' She whispers. He sits down next to her, eyes drilling into her face, attempting to for once read and understand her. 'I'm not sure what it is you ever wanted from me.' He says, running a hand through his curls. The gesture is familiar that it forces the corners of her mouth upward just slightly. Though not even she can answer the questions that tumble from his lips or that linger in his mind. She doesn't want the past. She wants now. They can worry about ghosts and the prospect of tomorrow as they go.

She can feel his hunger, his need, even his lust. They are two beings cut from the same cloth. There is gold in their tongues, words and persuasion have always been their disciples.

She opts not to address questions and instead indulge in one bit of history that she's turned over and over in her own mind.

'You were there that one time.' she says moving closer, 'in the village the time I stole the horse.' his words abandon him, and he is scarcely conscious of moving his head into a nod. She grins with the knowledge of a secret before kissing him hard.

The confusion is still riddled across his face, but he leans his head on hers as his eyes close. Something foreign creeps from his chest, spreading across his body. He sighs, his breath tickling her cheek. 'You make me calm.' he says, voice scarcely audible. 'You give me peace.' she answers. He pulls away, a slight bit of mischief seems to return in his eyes. 'You are everything.' he pauses, as something flashes across his face, 'You make me want to stay.' She smiles, her fingers playing with the wisps of hair at the nape of his neck. 'You wouldn't be you if you did. No.' she steals a kiss, 'We're going to go. We're going to go everywhere.'


End file.
